Wednesday, November 2, 2016

John W. Whitehead -- Not Guilty: The Power of Nullification to Counteract Government Tyranny

“The people have the power,
all we have to do is awaken that power in the people. The people are unaware.
They’re not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared
that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government.”—John Lennon

How do you balance the
scales of justice at a time when Americans are being tasered, tear-gassed,
pepper-sprayed, hit with batons, shot with rubber bullets and real bullets,
blasted with sound cannons, detained in cages and kennels, sicced by police dogs,
arrested and jailed for challenging the government’s excesses, abuses and
power-grabs?

Politics won’t fix a system
that is broken beyond repair.

No matter who sits in the
White House, the shadow government will continue to call the shots behind the
scenes.

Relying on the courts to
restore justice seems futile.

Indeed, with every ruling
handed down, it becomes more apparent that we live in an age of hollow justice,
with government courts, largely lacking in vision and scope, rendering narrow
rulings focused on the letter of the law. This is true at all levels of the
judiciary, but especially so in the highest court of the land, the U.S. Supreme
Court, which is seemingly more concerned with establishing order and protecting
government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Even so, justice matters.

It matters whether you’re a
rancher protesting a federal land-grab by the Bureau of Land Management, a
Native American protesting an oil pipeline that will endanger sacred sites and
pollute water supplies, or an African-American taking to the streets to protest
yet another police shooting of an unarmed citizen.

Unfortunately, protests and
populist movements haven’t done much to push back against an authoritarian
regime that is deaf to our cries, dumb to our troubles, blind to our needs, and
accountable to no one.

It doesn’t matter who the
activists are (environmentalists, peaceniks, Native Americans, Black Lives
Matter, Occupy, or the Bundys and their followers) or what the source of the
discontent is (endless wars abroad, police shootings, contaminated drinking
water, government land-grabs), the government’s modus operandi has
remained the same: shut down the protests using all means available, prosecute
First Amendment activities to the fullest extent of the law, and discourage any
future civil uprisings by criminalizing expressive activities, labelling
dissidents as extremists or terrorists, and conducting widespread surveillance
on the general populace in order to put down any whispers of resistance before
it can take root.

Thus, if there is any means
left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards
outright dictatorship, it may rest with the power of juries and local
governments to invalidate governmental laws, tactics and policies that are
illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.

In finding the defendants
not guilty—of conspiracy to impede federal officers, of possession of firearms
in a federal facility, and of stealing a government-owned truck—the jury sent
its own message to the government and those following the case: justice
matters.

The Malheur occupiers were
found not guilty despite the fact that they had guns in a federal facility
(their lawyers argued the guns were “as much a statement of their rural culture
as a cowboy hat or a pair of jeans”). They were found not guilty despite the
fact that they used government vehicles (although they would argue that
government property is public property available to all taxpayers). They were
found not guilty despite the fact that they succeeded in occupying a government
facility for six weeks, thereby preventing workers from performing their duties
(as the Washington Post points out, this charge has also been
used to prosecute extremist left-wingers and
Earth First protesters).

Many other equally sincere
activists with eloquent lawyers and ardent supporters have gone to jail for
lesser offenses than those committed at the Malheur Refuge, so what made the
difference here?

The jury made all the
difference.

These seven Oregon
protesters were found not guilty because a jury of their peers recognized the
sincerity of their convictions, sympathized with the complaints against an
overreaching government, and balanced the scales of justice using the only
tools available to them: common sense, compassion and the power of the jury
box.

Indeed, Butler believes so
strongly in the power of nullification to balance the scales between the power
of the prosecutor and the power of the people that he advises:

If you are ever on a jury
in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote “not guilty” — even if you think
the defendant actually smoked pot, or sold it to another consenting adult. As a
juror, you have this power under the Bill
of Rights; if you exercise it, you become part of a proud tradition of American
jurors who helped make our laws fairer.

In other words, it’s “we
the people” who can and should be determining what laws are just, what
activities are criminal and who can be jailed for what crimes.

Not only should the
punishment fit the crime, but the laws of the land should also reflect the
concerns of the citizenry as opposed to the profit-driven priorities of
Corporate America.

This is where the power of
jury nullification is so critical: to reject inane laws and extreme sentences
and counteract the edicts of a profit-driven governmental elite that sees
nothing wrong with jailing someone for a lifetime for a relatively insignificant
crime.

Of course, the
powers-that-be don’t want the citizenry to know that it has any power at all.

They would prefer that we
remain clueless about the government’s many illicit activities, ignorant about
our constitutional rights, and powerless to bring about any real change.

In an age in which
government officials accused of wrongdoing—police officers, elected officials,
etc.—are treated with general leniency, while the average citizen is prosecuted
to the full extent of the law, jury nullification is a powerful reminder that,
as the Constitution tells us, “we the people” are the government.

For too long we’ve allowed
our so-called “representatives” to call the shots. Now it’s time to restore the
citizenry to their rightful place in the republic: as the masters, not the
servants.

Where nullification can be
particularly powerful, however, is in the hands of the juror.

The reality with which we must
contend is that justice in America is reserved for those who can afford to buy
their way out of jail.

For the rest of us who are
dependent on the “fairness” of the system, there exists a multitude of ways in
which justice can and does go wrong every day. Police
misconduct. Prosecutorial misconduct. Judicial bias. Inadequate defense.
Prosecutors who care more about winning a case than seeking justice. Judges who
care more about what is legal than what is just. Jurors who know nothing of the
law and are left to deliberate in the dark about life-and-death decisions. And
an overwhelming body of laws, statutes and ordinances that render the average
American a criminal, no matter how law-abiding they might think themselves.

If you’re to have any hope
of remaining free—and I use that word loosely—your best bet remains in your
fellow citizens.

Your fellow citizens may
not know what the Constitution says (studies have shown Americans to be
abysmally ignorant about their rights), they may not know what the laws are
(there are so many on the books that the average American breaks three laws a
day without knowing it), and they may not even believe in your innocence, but
if you’re lucky, those who serve on a jury will have a conscience that speaks
louder than the legalistic tones of the prosecutors and the judges and reminds
them that justice and fairness go hand in hand.

That’s ultimately what jury
nullification is all about: restoring a sense of fairness to our system of
justice. It’s the best protection for “we the people” against the oppression
and tyranny of the government, and God knows, we can use all the protection we
can get. It’s a powerful way to remind the government—all of those bureaucrats
who have appointed themselves judge, jury and jailer over all that we are, have
and do—that we’re the ones who set the rules.

We could transform this
nation if only Americans would work together to harness the power of their
discontent.

Unfortunately, the
government’s divide and conquer tactics are working like a charm.

Despite the laundry list of
grievances that should unite “we the people” in common cause against the
government, the nation is more divided than ever by politics, by
socio-economics, by race, by religion, and by every other distinction that
serves to highlight our differences.

The real and manufactured
events of recent years—the invasive surveillance, the extremism reports, the
civil unrest, the protests, the shootings, the bombings, the military exercises
and active shooter drills, the color-coded alerts and threat assessments, the
fusion centers, the transformation of local police into extensions of the
military, the distribution of military equipment and weapons to local police
forces, the government databases containing the names of dissidents and potential
troublemakers—have all conjoined to create an environment in which “we the
people” are more divided, more distrustful, and fearful of each other.

What we have failed to
realize is that in the eyes of the government, we’re all the same.

In other words, when it’s
time for the government to crack down—and that time is coming—it won’t matter
whether we supported Hillary or Trump, whether we stood with the pipeline
protesters or opposed BLM, or whether we spoke out against government
misconduct and injustice or remained silent.

When the government cracks
down, we’ll all suffer.

Here’s the thing: the
government wants a civil war.

The objective: compliance
and control.

Its strategy: destabilize
the economy through endless wars, escalate racial tensions, polarize the
populace, heighten tensions through a show of force, intensify the use of
violence, and then, when all hell breaks loose, clamp down on the nation for
the good of the people and the security of the nation.

The government has been
anticipating and preparing for such a civil uprising for some time now.

Those were just dress
rehearsals for the government to work out the kinks in its operating manual on
how to deal with civil unrest.

They were also previews of
what’s in store if we continue to challenge the powers-that-be.

After all, it’s hard to
persuade anyone to stand against tyranny when all you can promise them as a
reward is persecution, prosecution and a one-way trip to the morgue. And when
the outcome seems to be a foregone conclusion—the government always wins—it can
seem pointless, even foolhardy, to dare to challenge the system.

So how do you not only push
back against the police state’s bureaucracy, corruption and cruelty but also
launch a counterrevolution aimed at reclaiming control over the government
using nonviolent means?

You start by changing the
rules and engaging in some (nonviolent) guerilla tactics.

Employ militant nonviolent
resistance and civil disobedience, which Martin Luther King
Jr. used to great effect through the use of sit-ins, boycotts and marches.

Take part in grassroots
activism, which takes a trickle-up approach to governmental reform by
implementing change at the local level (in other words, think nationally, but
act locally).

And then, as I explain in
more detail in my book Battlefield America: The War on the
American People, nullify everything. Nullify the court cases. Nullify
the laws. Nullify everything the government does that is illegitimate,
egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.

PUTIN AT VALDAI

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